TRAINGATE

As someone who regularly does several hundred miles in a week on the UK’s rail network covering stories for this column, I am a world expert on standard class train travel. I know which stations do the best cups of tea (Barnstaple, Newcastle, Stockport), and what are the best ways to obtain a forward-facing table seat (I could tell you but I’d have to kill you).

Despite these skills, too often I find myself sitting in a train corridor sometimes because there are no seats, or because the train is too crowded to get where my seat is and sometimes because there’s an elderly person or a family with little kids sitting in it.

Those “ram-packed” trains are not just deeply unpleasant (especially in summer, with dodgy air-con, or in winter, when the heating’s broken) but are also often shockingly expensive and so late you miss your connection. Whatever the ins and outs of Traingate, which this week saw Jeremy Corbyn and Virgin Trains at loggerheads, I’m 100% behind Labour’s plan to bring the railways back into public hands.

After David Cameron’s 6

disgraceful knighthoods-forchums resignation honours list we need to restore our national honour. Theresa May should start with one man – Sir Mo Farah. His journey from war-torn Somalia to Britain’s greatest athlete could teach some of the other ‘Sirs’ (including one on this page) a thing or two.